Scottish Parliament

Written Answers

Wednesday 26 January 2000

Scottish Executive

Agriculture

Mr John Munro (Ross, Skye and Inverness West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the announcement made by the then Scottish Agriculture Minister Lord Sewel on 23 March 1999, whether it plans to honour in full the commitments given at that time in respect of the Agricultural Business Improvement Scheme.

Ross Finnie: The improvements announced by Lord Sewel on 23 March 1999 came into effect on 31 March and remain part of the scheme. There was a very large surge in applications, which far exceeded the limits of the scheme. Accordingly, following consultations with the industry, I announced on 16 November that applications relating to new measures made available from 31 March 1999 and projects relating to self-standing systems for the storage and disposal of farm waste would be given priority.

Agriculture

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has taken every measure available to it to prevent the collapse of the Scottish pig industry.

Ross Finnie: The Scottish Executive recognises the serious difficulties presently facing the Scottish pig industry and the impact which this is having on employment both on farm and in the processing sector. It has taken a number of measures to strengthen the marketing position of the industry and despite the very tight EU pigs regime and State Aid constraints which severely limit the scope for providing any direct aid is exploring every avenue to assist the sector.

British-Irish Council

David McLetchie (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to report to the Parliament on meetings of the British-Irish Council by way of ministerial statement or otherwise.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Executive will, in the first instance, arrange a debate in the Parliament on the British- Irish Council. Thereafter, decisions can be taken on how meetings of the Council should be reported to Parliament and on how Executive and Parliament relationships can be fostered under its aegis.

Domestic Abuse

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what assistance is available from the Domestic Abuse Service Development Fund to women’s aid groups to sustain their existing work.

Jackie Baillie: Local authorities will continue to be responsible for funding local women's aid groups under existing arrangements.

  However, the Domestic Abuse Service Development Fund makes provision for extending those arrangements.

Domestic Abuse

Dorothy-Grace Elder (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make urgent investigations into the £30,000 shortfall in funding faced by Women’s Aid, Glasgow; whether it has any plans to make available additional funding to prevent its closure and what plans it has to maintain the long term future and work of Women’s Aid, Glasgow through the necessary level of funding.

Jackie Baillie: Funding for local women's aid groups is the responsibility of the local authorities. The Scottish Executive has no plans at present to disburse funds directly to local groups. However, we expect women's aid local groups to benefit from the Domestic Abuse Service Development Fund.

Domestic Abuse

Dorothy-Grace Elder (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what its planned expenditure is on television advertising on domestic violence this year and whether it will show how this figure compares with the £600,000 expenditure last year.

Jackie Baillie: Expenditure on television advertising on domestic violence for the financial year 1999-2000 will amount to approximately £232,000.

  The amount spent during 1998-99 included advertising production costs, press advertising, radio commercials, telephone helpline and printed material in addition to those costs incurred on television broadcasts. Similar expenditure will be incurred during 1999-2000 except that television production costs will be lower.

Education

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any representations from the Dyslexia Institute Bursary Fund (Scotland); if so, what estimate that body has made as to the proportion of the population suffering from some degree of dyslexia, and what steps it will take in order to provide appropriate tuition at an early age to help children with dyslexia acquire basic skills in reading, writing and numeracy.

Mr Sam Galbraith: The Scottish Executive has received no representations from the Dyslexia Institute Bursary Fund (Scotland).

  The Scottish Executive is providing over £5 million in 2000-01 to local authorities for in-service development and training of staff working with pupils with special educational needs, including dyslexia. £1 million of this funding is directed towards staff working with pupils in the early years of primary school.

Education

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3178 by Henry McLeish on 23 December 1999, what its target percentage is for private funding in the higher and further education sectors and whether it has any plans to sell off to any consortia any interests the Executive holds in institutions active in these sectors.

Henry McLeish: The Executive has no target percentage for private funding in the higher and further education sectors. As autonomous bodies, the institutions themselves are free to attract private funding as they wish. The Executive does not own higher and further education institutions but retains an interest in the disposal of assets that were publicly funded.

Enterprise

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-1757 by Henry McLeish on 12 October 1999, whether the conditions applying to recent grants to UNISYS were varied from the norm by taking into account the closure of a UNISYS plant in Scotland and its removal elsewhere in 1991.

Henry McLeish: No. All RSA offers clearly state the provision that grant can be recovered if a plant or factory which is benefiting from grant assistance closes.

Environment

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the landfill sites where tritium leachate has been identified and when it expects the Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s work in identifying the sources to be completed.

Sarah Boyack: The results of the monitoring for tritium in landfill leachate during 1998 are published in the Radioactivity in Food and the Environment, 1998 report (RIFE – 4). An extract from the relevant table containing this information is reproduced below.

  


Area 

  

Location

  



Aberdeen City

  

Ness Tip

  



City of Edinburgh

  

Braehead

  



City of Glasgow

  

Summerston Tip

  



Clackmannanshire

  

Black Devon

  



Dundee City

  

Riverside

  



East Dunbartonshire

  

Birdston Tip

  



Fife

  

Balbarton

  



Fife

  

Melville Wood

  



Highland

  

Longman Tip

  



North Lanarkshire

  

Dalmacoulter

  



North Lanarkshire

  

Kilgarth

  



Stirling

  

Lower Polmaise

  



  Levels of tritium leachate from landfill are of very low radiological significance. SEPA is currently working on a study to determine the likely source of tritium within the landfill leachate. It is likely to be some time before the findings of this study will be available.

Environment

Mr Murray Tosh (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-498 by Sarah Boyack on 4 November 1999, whether it is working on proposals for charges on householders for the uplift of domestic refuse.

Sarah Boyack: No. The National Waste Strategy: Scotland recommended that householders should be made aware of the costs of dealing with their waste and that local authorities should be required to identify collection and disposal charges separately on council tax bills or to identify these costs on leaflets accompanying the bills.

Finance

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the reduction is in NHS and teachers’ pensions expenditure in the current financial year, and what specific aspect of NHS and teachers’ pensions will be reduced.

Mr Jack McConnell: No reductions have been made to the benefits provided under either scheme. Pension recipients received a 3.2% cost of living increase in April 1999.

  Actual expenditure is demand-driven with the trend upwards as the schemes become more mature. The figures for annual budget baselines, which are for payments less contributions received, can and do vary significantly from year to year. The main reasons are changes in the numbers retiring, where the lump sum payable at the point of retirement is a significant factor, changes in contribution levels and bulk transfer payments.

Finance

Cathy Jamieson (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what financial help is to be made available to East Ayrshire Council following the severe winds which started on Boxing Day 1998 and lasted into the first few days of 1999.

Mr Jack McConnell: I am glad to announce that East Ayrshire Council is eligible for a payment of £243,352 under the Bellwin Scheme. The Scheme was triggered on 8 April 1999 following representation from several councils in the central belt and south west of Scotland on costs directly associated with the immediate aftermath of the Boxing Day storms.

  There has been close liaison between the Scottish Executive and East Ayrshire Council on the eligibility of its claim. The Council’s costs were primarily in the revenue costs of removing fallen trees and safeguarding structures that endangered the public safety and in meeting the uninsured excesses of insurance claims for over 7,000 damaged premises.

Further Education

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to make public the report of the National Audit Office investigation into Moray College, Elgin.

Henry McLeish: Responsibility for the conclusion of the investigation was passed to the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of the Scottish Further Education Funding Council on 1 July 1999 when the Council assumed responsibility for the funding of further education colleges. The Chief Executive has still to finalise and present a report on the results of the investigation to the Council, which will then decide on any further action to be taken. The National Audit Office or its successor, Audit Scotland, may subsequently decide to report on this matter to Parliament. As they are wholly independent of the Executive, I cannot say whether either party will decide to publish any report.

Health

Mr Andrew Welsh (Angus) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive for what purpose the money raised by bequest and public donation for the stroke unit at Stracathro Hospital, Angus has been disbursed.

Susan Deacon: Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust indicates that the funding to which Mr Welsh refers has not been disbursed.

Health

Shona Robison (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports a policy of asking patients to pay for treatment deemed not essential, as outlined by Dr Maclean, medical director of Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Susan Deacon: The Scottish Executive is committed to providing a publicly funded National Health Service in Scotland free at the point of delivery. The NHSiS aims to provide patients with the highest and most modern standards of care. Record levels of resources have been made available to allow a wide range of treatments and services, including highly specialised and complex treatments, to be provided on an equitable basis to those who require them.

Justice

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that a conflict of interest is publicly perceived to exist in relation to Lord Rodger of Earlsferry’s involvement in Court of Appeal judgements and refusal of leave to appeal in cases concerning persons refusing to pay the A87 toll at Skye, given that he may have been Lord Advocate when the instructions regarding prosecution in such cases were sent from the Crown Office to the local Procurator Fiscal.

Mr Jim Wallace: I have no information on which to base an assessment of public perceptions of this matter.

Justice

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the actual costs of the implementation of the European Convention of Human Rights have been during 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000 to date.

Mr Jim Wallace: The information requested is not available. Costs resulting from the consideration of ECHR issues cannot readily be disaggregated from other costs which are incurred in civil or criminal proceedings, including Legal Aid, prosecution and court costs.

Police

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3270 by Mr Jim Wallace on 11 January 2000, whether it is able to break down the administrative costs of issuing fixed penalty fines by type of fine and by constabulary area and, if not, whether it will provide an estimate of these costs.

Mr Jim Wallace: No. Police administration costs of issuing fixed penalties are not calculated in the form requested and could not be estimated with any degree of accuracy.

Prison Service

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, in the light of the statement by the Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service on 22 October 1999 at Law Moss prison in which he referred to "acceptable overcrowding", whether it has changed its policy on prison overcrowding.

Mr Jim Wallace: There is no change in the Scottish Executive’s views on prison overcrowding.

Prison Service

Mrs Lyndsay McIntosh (Central Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how the £13 million saved from the Scottish Prison Service budget will be utilised.

Mr Jim Wallace: This underspend will be deployed on a range of other initiatives across the Justice Department. These include making resources available for the Scottish Partnership on Domestic Violence, increasing the funding of Victim Support initiatives and supporting a range of investments to provide the police with the infrastructure they need to tackle crime effectively.

Transport

Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost of electrifying the Edinburgh to Aberdeen rail line would be.

Sarah Boyack: Railtrack has estimated the infrastructure costs for the electrification of the East Coast Main Line between Edinburgh and Aberdeen at around £200 million, excluding the cost of new trains.

Transport

Mr Duncan Hamilton (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what correspondence it has had with Brian Wilson, Minister of State at the Scotland Office, regarding the Ballycastle-Campbeltown ferry service.

Sarah Boyack: : The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the Scotland Office, at official and ministerial level, on a wide range of subjects. The Executive is also in regular contact with the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions in relation to matters within that Department’s responsibilities. The details of such contacts are not normally released.

Transport

Cathy Jamieson (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government regarding what action it proposes to take to ensure that rail freight is brought within the scope of the Rail Regulator.

Sarah Boyack: This is a reserved matter. The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority and Office of Rail Regulator on issues relating to rail freight in Scotland.

Transport

Bruce Crawford (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details of the case submitted to Her Majesty’s Government regarding Scotland’s defence in relation to VAT on tolls.

Sarah Boyack: The arguments advanced by the United Kingdom Government at the European Court are summarised in the official Report for the Hearing (Case C-359/97) prepared by the Judge-Rapporteur. A copy of that report is being placed in the Parliament’s Information Centre.

Transport

Mr Murray Tosh (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3423 by Sarah Boyack on 16 December 1999, whether it will publicise the criteria which it will use to determine whether the proposed Public Private Partnerships for the M77 Fenwick to Malletsheugh motorway extension demonstrate value for money.

Sarah Boyack: Since 24 June 1999 it has been Scottish Executive policy to make Full Business Cases for all central Government public/private partnerships publicly available.

Transport

Mr Murray Tosh (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3423 by Sarah Boyack on 16 December 1999, whether this answer confirms that the entire final costs of the proposed Public Private Partnerships for the M77 Fenwick to Malletsheugh motorway extension will be paid for from the Scottish Consolidated Fund.

Sarah Boyack: A Public Private Partnership approach to the procurement of the M77 between Fenwick and Malletsheugh will be pursued provided that this approach demonstrates value for money. The entire costs of the procurement would then be paid from the Scottish Consolidated Fund.

Transport

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3181 by Sarah Boyack on 23 December 1999, whether any specific representations have been made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer regarding the level of excise duty on heavy vehicles and its impact on the trading position of Scottish road haulage firms and, if so, (a) what were they and (b) what answer was received.

Sarah Boyack: I have nothing to add to my answer of 23 December.